The Brightest Witch of Her Age
by Emlii
Summary: Emily has grown up reading and holding faith in Harry Potter. Her biggest dream when she was little was to be a wizard just like Harry. Well, that dream can become a reality but at the price of losing all her family and friends and starting over.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

**Don't read if you like to live in suspense for the entire story!**

I stare, stunned, at the two people before me. Were they serious? Give all this up just to... I mean, it was ridiculous! I glance into Spencer's eyes, ugh they were _perfect_- green like a beautiful emerald and always sparkling. The familiar twinkle never failed to make me feel better but for some reason, now, they weren't sparkling in a good way, instead, there was a pang of sadness and desperation. I bite my lip and shift my glance to the floor, I couldn't focus on that right now. I look back up but this time at Bethany, one of the few people I've really trusted through all of this. Her intensely clear blue eyes flash between doubt and hopefulness as our eyes meet.

My face is growing hotter and it's all I can do to choke back a sob. I look back down at the yellowed paper in my hands. How is this happening? The best thing that's ever happened to me is turning out to be the worst. _It doesn't have to be, _I reminded myself, _you could just say no. _But of course, I couldn't say no to this either. I think wistfully of my sisters, Julia, Katherine, and Georgia, my best friend, Emma, and, of course, my brother, Blake... poor Blake, how could I do this to him? _It wont affect them! _I reasoned, _this can only hurt you, and they all promise it only hurts for a few days while the confusion clears! _

I shook my head as if to clear my thoughts and Spencer, clearly sensing me leaning away from going along with it placed a hand on my shoulder and I looked up, startled. Our eyes met and I gazed into his eyes as he calmly said, "Emily, listen to me, as much as it hurts me to say this it hurts me more to see you this upset. You don't have to do this." He said, "it's completely up to you but we do have a limited amount of time so if you could try and make your decision soon everything will work out, I promise. I hate seeing you this upset and I don't want to lose having you but if you decide not to do it please understand we'll have to clear your memory, you wont remember any of this." He gulped, "I love you Emily, I don't want to have to do that to you."

I felt my mouth hanging open in shock, he _loved _me? I moved my mouth as if to speak but before I could his hand entangled itself in mine and he pulled me into a rough, almost desperate hug. I finally stopped trying and allowed myself to sob raggedly into his neck. He let my hand go and entangled it in my hair, holding my head close to him, while the other hand rubbed lazy, soothing circles on my back. We stood like this for a good few minutes until finally Bethany pulled us out of our haze with a small gasp. "Spence! Em! It's time to go if we're going to do this!"

I stepped back, attempting to dry my face with my hands and sniffling almost pathetically. I turned and let out one more dry sob as I took one last look at my beautifully familiar house. I see my parents window, dark, along with Julia and Georgia's windows. They were all too young to be up this late but Katherine and Blake both had their lights on. Blake was probably doing the homework he "forgot" about all night and no doubt Katherine was still watching her Romantic Comedy Movie Marathon. I gave them all one last good luck wish and a watery smile and turned back to my friends. "Will I ever remember them? Or will they ever get deja vu when they remember me?" I asked. Spencer nodded,

"It's been known to happen, it'll most likely happen with you and Blake because of how close you are. And you can always find where he is in the world and see him. He wont know you and I will forever forbid you to talk to him but if it doesn't hurt too much and you recognize him it might be nice. However we'll try and make sure everything is painless as possible so you don't remember anything except those few unavoidable times where it's gonna happen. We'll provide you with the best family possible and it will seem to you like they've been your family all along."

I nod as if I had a choice and I were accepting this one. This was my choice and I was okay with it now. I squeezed my eyes tight and felt Bethany's comforting arm around my shoulder as the cold chain of the time turner was slipped over my neck and I sucked in a deep breath, this was it. I was going away and I would never see them again. I felt the sobs coming back and let my breath out with a shuddery sort of gasp. Spencer's fingers tangled themselves in mine and I squeezed his hand. He held mine tight and I peeked out of my shut eyes to see Bethany spinning the time turner so many times I just sort of lost count.

Suddenly my body was being pulled from the navel as we made the huge leap in time and I briefly felt the pang of second-guessing hit me before everything was black. The one thing I was sure of through it all was that Spencer's hand never left mine.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So speedy little disclaimer here, I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, spells, places, events, or ideas. All of them belong rightfully to J.K. Rowling however the new school that will be presented in this story is of my creation. The rating is going to change but not by much. As the kids get older there will be some romance, romantic drama and maybe some action if I feel like it. **

**Also, please review! The reviews help me because if I think people aren't reading or aren't enjoying my work I freeze up and hit huge writer's block. Also in the reviews in the beginning I'd like to hear what you guys need out of the story, I have most of the end of the story mapped out but I'd like to know when you want me to skip ahead or work on plot development. For example, do you want me to go on to first grade in Chapter 2 or would you like some more info on Emily and Emma? Basically I'm giving you some of the creative power here. I promise this is my last long-ass Author's note for a while please enjoy and review and comment and... all that good stuff thanks! 3 3 **

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><p>Chapter 1: 10 years Earlier<p>

"Emily. Honey, come on." Jacquelyn Plaugher gave her daughter a gentle shove forward but Emily Plaugher's hand was clamped down tight on her twin brother Blake's hand and she had no clear intention of letting go. Blake was letting his gaze wander wistfully between his sister and a cool-looking sandbox that was just begging him to check it out.

"Mommy!" Blake groaned, "it's time for you to go now!"

Jacquelyn chuckled, "alright Blake, Emily, I'm going now. You be a good girl and don't give your brother too much trouble, go make some new friends, honey." She bent down and planted a kiss on top of her son's head then took her daughter's face in her hands and kissed her on the forehead before looking her straight in the eye and saying, "remember our deal, you be a good girl and go to school and do what the teachers ask and maybe when you're 11 you'll get accepted to Hogwarts." Jacquelyn giggled softly and tapped Emily's nose affectionately as Emily allowed herself a small giggle and smile as well.

With that Jacquelyn stood up and Emily took the chance to throw her arms around her mother's legs in a tight bear hug that, she hoped, showed her mom how much she loved her. Blake took the opportunity to slide silently off to the beckoning sandbox and immediately began making friends with two of the other boys in the sandbox. When Emily finally stepped back and gave her mom a sheepish smile Jacquelyn laughed and returned her daughter's sweet smile. "Oh! I almost forgot!" She exclaimed and pulled a long, black robe 7 times too big for Emily out of her purse along with a stick. "Here you go, darling." She said, putting the robe on Emily and hanging her the stick. "No good witch can go to school without a uniform and wand!" She said. "Now I really must go dear." She said, it didn't matter, though, Emily was already racing off, no doubt searching for the perfect Hogwarts, maybe even someone who knew about Harry Potter as well! Jacquelyn sighed and turned, walking confidently out to the parking lot and into her car. Finally, the day most mothers dread, the first day of school, was over, or at least the hard part was. She smiled contentedly and drove off, leaving Emily and Blake to their own devices.

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><p>Back on the playground Blake was happily trying to stack dry sand on top of itself in order to make the biggest sand castle he could. Playing with him were his two brand new friends, Casey and Ian. Blake was pretty pleased with himself, he had managed to avoid playing Harry Potter with Emily <em>and<em> made 2 new friends all in about 20 minutes. As Ian passed him a brand new bucket of sand and Blake started to wonder what they'd do without water he smiled to himself, proud that he was going to be smart enough to solve this problem.

Meanwhile, Emily wasn't having quite as much luck. As she would walk around other girls would point or stare, some of them even laughed. The boys would either try and step on her robe or have a swordfight with her and her wand. Things became increasingly agitating for Emily because it seemed no one understood what Harry Potter was, she'd even _ask _people if they knew but the other kids would just stare blankly until Emily sighed and walked away.

Finally, feeling the heavy burden of defeat, Emily heard the welcome recess bell meaning playtime was over and it was time to go inside to her first day of Kindergarten. She gladly joined the rest of kids in the line that was forming by the steps but carefully kept her head down so as to avoid eye contact with the kids who were laughing at her. Surely someone must know about Harry Potter! But Emily knew when enough was enough. When they went inside she carefully left her stick in a cubby hole outside and balled her robe up inside it and trudged inside to sit on a rug with the letters of the alphabet on it.

As each child picked their way across the rug to find the letter that began their name Emily spotted Blake. Her face lit up with hope, she had at least one friend! But her face fell again when Blake took a seat on the 'B' along with a few other kids whose names must start with 'B' as well. He looked pretty happy so Emily turned and found the 'E' on the floor. It was empty except one boy who had made fun of her cloak. She warily avoided the 'E' and decided she'd sit on the 'H' for Hermione. When Emily got to the 'H' she was happy to find one other boy sitting on it. She silently hoped his name was Harry so they could automatically be friends. She sat down and smiled shyly. He smiled back and said, "What's your name?"

Emily considered carefully, her name didn't start with 'H' so she shouldn't really be sitting on this letter. But what name could she give the boy? The teachers were bound to call on her and they would call her Emily... she sighed, "I'm Emily. What's yours?"

The boy gave her a sort of funny look, "I'm Henry." He said, "I don't get why you aren't sitting on the 'E'?" He said gesturing back to the 'E' letter on the rug and the mean boy whose name also started with 'E'.

Emily looked down at the floor, embarrassed, "That boy made fun of me." She whispered. "He thinks I'm weird for liking Harry Potter." She admitted. Henry's face didn't change and he sat there for a moment but before he could say anything the teacher started to get the kid's attention. Instead he just shrugged as if to tell Emily it was ok to sit on his 'H' with him. Emily was grateful but before she turned her attention to the teacher she took one sad glance at Blake who clearly had no problems with people making fun of him.

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><p>The learning part of school wasn't actually too bad for Emily, no one could make fun of her and you didn't need friends for this part. Blake was already smart and she was doing so well she thought that maybe she could become as smart as him soon. They learned the first half of the alphabet and how to count all the way to 30 today. Emily was very good at counting, numbers always seemed to be easier than words and letters. In fact, she was so good she could count all the way to 50 if she wanted. The teachers also taught them all the rules of the classroom. Some of them were easy to remember, don't run, inside voices inside, ask before going to the bathroom, don't go over to the big kid school, and don't bring your food inside unless you sit at a table. Of course some of the rules were extremely hard to remember. One that Emily never seemed to get was something about using certain words that were mean but Emily had never heard these words, how were they supposed to use them if they had never heard them?<p>

After learning for a while they all got to go eat lunch. Emily got her lunch out of her backpack and looked around, kids were sitting everywhere but she couldn't see Blake so she picked a table where no one was sitting yet. About halfway through her peanut butter and jelly sandwich Ian, Blake, Henry and Casey sat down at her table and they had a good lunch. They all talked and Henry told her he wanted to be friends. Emily smiled and said she would like that very much.

After lunch they got to go play on the playground Emily. All the kids ran outside but Emily carefully walked outside and placed her lunchbox in the cubby with her wand and robe and pulled her balled up robe out. She slipped it on over her shoulders then trudged out onto the playground to sit on the swings. Even if she was alone she still wanted to play.

As she sat on the swing she noticed something strange going on near the classroom. A little girl and her mom had just come in and the little blonde girl was looking right at her. The girl looked back up at her mom who was explaining something to a teacher and then at the teacher who was bending down to talk to her. She nodded three times quickly then distractedly tugged her hand free of her mother's. She walked slowly and shyly over to Emily and just sort of stood there in front of her. She stood there for a long time and at one point Emily almost stood up to give her the swing but suddenly the girl blurted out, "Are you in Gryffindor?"

Emily's mouth widened in shock, "I- Yes! I am." She said, "I'm supposed to be Hermione."

The girl grinned broadly, "Hermione's my favorite." She said, making Emily smile too. "I'm Emma, what's your name?"

Emily was now positively teeming with excitement. "I'm Emily, how many books have you read?" She asked, excited.

Emma thought for a moment, "I'm only on the 3rd book. My mom read the first two to me though. She'll read this one to me too."

Emily was impressed, she was also reading the third book with her mom, "same", she said, "would you like to play Harry Potter with me?" She asked, hopeful she didn't go too far.

Emma grinned and nodded happily, "I think we should both be Hermione, it's okay because both our names start with 'E'!"

Emily found this extremely reasonable and nodded her agreement. The two got their wands and started running around the playground, preforming spells whenever opportunities arose, they fixed the castle Blake was making with a quick "reparo!" and nothing gave them greater pleasure than levitating things their classmates were playing with and imagining the looks on their faces if they could see it too.

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><p>They spent the last 10 minutes of recess doing this and neither of them noticed Emma's mom standing by the door, silently crying with joy because she didn't think anyone else would share Emma's passion but now she was in the right place, her mom could just feel these girls would be friends through thick and thin. As the bell rang for everyone to go back inside she quickly took a deep breath and hurried outside to get in her car and leave Emma to her brand-new friend. Success!<p>

The rest of the day they spent together, they both sat on the 'E' on the rug and they never left each other's side when they moved around the room. Things were starting to look really good for Emily.

When it was finally time to go home Emily gave Emma a big hug with a smile and said, "well, I suppose we'll see each other tomorrow!" Emma grinned,

"I suppose we'll see each other every day!" She said, laughing. The two got their things then held hands all the way out to the parking lot where their mothers were waiting. Emily and Blake ran to their mom to hug her and Emma ran to her mom.

"Hey guys!" Jacquelyn cried, "how was your first day?" She asked, Blake and Emily shared a glance, then Emily looked over to Emma.

"It was awesome! So much fun!" Blake said.

Emily grinned, "Brilliant mum, absolutely brilliant."


End file.
